NCIS has delivered some of the biggest twists in the series’ history in Season 19 thanks to the departure of Mark Harmon’s Gibbs after an intense final arc, and the show has a new deadly case on the way for the team next. Unfortunately for fans, however, they’ll have to wait longer than usual for a new episode following the decision about who replaces Gibbs. NCIS is skipping a new episode on October 25, but will be back the next week with an episode that already sounds intriguing.
The nineteenth season of NCIS will return to CBS with a new episode on Monday, November 1 in its Season 19 time slot of 9 p.m. ET. Called “False Start,” the episode will see the NCIS team on the case of a Navy commander who died after training some of the best of the best athletes in the United States, and becoming a beloved figure for it. It should also be the first official case for the new NCIS team, with Gary Cole’s Parker and Katrina Law’s Knight officially on board in the places of Gibbs and Bishop.
That’s not to say that Gibbs is going to be gone for good just because the team is getting back to business as usual with investigations without him, although Emily Wickersham’s Bishop got a pretty definitive departure with Torres slowly getting over losing her. And fans probably shouldn’t hold out hope of seeing Gibbs any time too soon, and focus on the future. After all, Gibbs’ goodbye didn’t involve a life-and-death cliffhanger, as he was more or less retiring into a quiet life… in Alaska, so he can’t just drop by to share some pearls of wisdom with the team. “False Start” should provide a window into how well the NCIS team veterans mesh with Parker in charge.
It may help that he got the top job because McGee passed on it, so there doesn’t need to be any tension about Parker stealing anybody’s job. And the team did a pretty good job of welcoming Knight, with even Torres not giving her much trouble while he was still working through the fact that it was Bishop’s departure that meant they needed a new member in the first place. Will Parker slip right into the dynamic with no problem after the previous episode, or is he still in for more of a trial by fire? After all, every other agent joined Gibbs’ team. There was never a case of a team leader taking over.
Whatever happens, “False Start” doesn’t sound like it will be any more intense than the average episode of NCIS, even if it will evidently be deadly, so it could be the perfect case for the show to ease viewers into the new dynamic of the team. And the wait to see what happens with the case won’t be too painfully long, as the delay isn’t a case of NCIS heading into a hiatus. The show will be back next week, at 9 p.m. ET on Monday, November 1 on CBS, ahead of a new episode of hit spinoff NCIS: Hawai’i.
